Kindred
by Duhastas the Dark
Summary: Rage seethes and growls within Raven. But is she the only one who snarls within a cage? Takes place during "The Beast Within". Oneshot.


**Alright. First try at Teen Titans fanfiction. Feedback of all sorts is appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: You KNOW I don't own the Teen Titans! Why do you torment me like this?!**

Rage could feel him.

She didn't know how, or why. For a few days now, Raven had been on edge. Something had been wrong with one of the weak creatures she called friends. He hadn't been himself. He'd been aggressive. He'd been dominant.

He'd been angry. That alone wasn't much, admittedly. Rage had narrowed her four eyes and snarled at the _idea_ -the inconceivable concept- of his anger being anywhere near her own level. His was a petty and personal anger. Directed at individuals and their hierarchy. Rage was much, much more. Her fury would destroy civilizations if let loose, an all-encompassing inferno of pain and vengeance for slights both real and imaginary.

But then… oh, then, it happened. That one night, when Raven heard a howl and went to investigate it, following her ears to the door of her teammate, Beast Boy. When the door opened and revealed the monster waiting behind it, and the creature's eyes locked with her own. Raven's emotions had been as startled as she. Timid was prominent among them, for once, overshadowing them all. She would have been smug about it if she wasn't so terrified.

The thing had caught Raven. Had hurt her, badly, within an instant, before she could so much as say her incantation. Rage screamed and howled in frustration, wanting desperately to be let out. To crush the thing that had attacked them. But the beast was already taking her away by then. Back to its lair. What might have happened there, none can say. Adonis's psyche has never been a source of interest for the scientific community. Would he have eaten her? Perhaps. Perhaps something even worse might have happened.

That's when the second creature appeared, its green fur plastered against its skin, all muscle and teeth and claws and pure, ancient, earth-shaking _fury_. There was no posturing. No challenge to the brown rival who had dared attack it in its nest. There was only retaliation. Retaliation and something else. Something which neither Rage nor the green creature fully understood, something which drove it to leave its dazed rival alive, and instead take the wounded, vulnerable witch with it. It had carried her to safety between its teeth. Raven lost consciousness then, and Nevermore went dark for a while as her healing coma began.

But Rage… oh, Rage had _felt_ the creature's fury, rolling off it in searing waves of red. The sensation had been painful, not unlike standing too close to a bonfire. For the first time in her existence, Rage had been quelled, not by Raven and her morals, but by exposition to an anger as pure and bright as hers.

And she _craved_ it. The others had trembled or stared, stuck between fear and admiration. Rage had shuddered in a way that was almost obscene, her sensations set alight by this kindred spirit. She wasn't sure if her skin had always been that flushed, if her heart had ever beat that fast, if her fighting instincts had ever been as incensed as they were at that moment. Rage wanted him. She _needed_ him. She wanted to break, no, _**destroy**_ him, and be destroyed by him in turn. She wanted to wrap her hands around his throat and squeeze, and wanted to feel her own trachea close beneath his fingers. She longed to strike his limbs until they broke, and to feel her own arms and legs snap under his ministrations. She wondered what it would feel like to tangle her hands in his mane. What the hard, unyielding muscle would feel like under her touch.

Rage ran her tongue over her lips, pacing about the broken fortress that was her domain, eager and anxious to see this kindred spirit again, this beast of fury and instinct.

But when Raven awoke, the beast was gone. Its anger and fury had been cooled by its victory, and it had retreated within the sniveling boy, further locked in with a chemical "cure". Rage was alone once more. But she had learned to listen some time back, and she held back on the tantrum that threatened to explode out of her every pore. Her ears strained as her host went to find the weakling, trying to comfort him in her own, dry manner.

"That thing, that beast, it came from inside me," Beast Boy had said sullenly to his reflection in the water. "And it's still there. I can feel it."

A slow, toothy grin spread over Rage's lips. It was still there. That beast had not been eradicated, merely suppressed. And she knew all too well that no monster ever stayed in its cage willingly. Someday, she'd see that beautiful creature again. Someday, she'd feel that rage wash over her.

Someday, the world would be set aflame. And they'd be sitting at the very top of the pyre.

Rage couldn't wait.

**So. What'd you think? Yay, nay?**


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